POST-OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



631 



or of no importance. 32,422 dead letters 

 contained $98,606.20, of which amount $89,- 

 759.36 was delivered or returned, so that over 

 ninety-one per cent, of valuable matter con- 

 tained in dead letters was restored to the own- 

 ers. Of the foreign letters from Europe, 

 nearly three per cent, are returned as dead; 

 of letters sent from this country to Europe, 

 less than six-tenths of one per cent. Un- 

 claimed money taken from dead letters, and all 

 money derived from the sale of waste paper in 

 post-offices, is deposited in the Treasury for the 

 service of the Department. That taken from 

 dead letters is always subject to the call of the 

 owner. 



The Money-order Office. This branch of the 

 post-office was established May 17, 1864, and 

 went into operation on the first day of the 

 following November, with 141 offices. The 

 object of the system was the establishment of 

 an agency for the safe and cheap transmission 

 of small sums of money. As a general rule, 

 postmasters are forbidden to issue to one per- 

 son more than three orders of fifty dollars each 

 on one day on the same office. And when 

 orders for $150 or over in favor of one person 

 are presented on the same day at a second- 

 class office, the postmaster is at liberty to 

 defer the payment for five days. For the sake 

 of security, the names of payor and payee are 

 omitted from the order. By the mail imme- 

 diately succeeding the issue of the order, the 

 postmaster who receives the money notifies 

 the officer on whom it is drawn of the names 

 of both parties. The latter office is thus 

 furnished with all information necessary to 

 guard against fraud or mistake. A money 

 order is invalid unless presented within ninety 

 days from date ; after that date the postmaster 

 will issue a new order without the payment 

 of a second fee. An order may be repaid at 

 the office at which it is drawn, provided that 

 it is less than one year old, and does not bear 

 more than one indorsement. No money-order 

 business is allowed to be done on Sundays. 

 To forge or counterfeit an order is a penal of- 

 fence, and but one instance of this kind has 

 ever occurred. 



The fees of this office are fixed on a sliding 

 scale of one-half per cent., as follows: on 

 orders not exceeding $20, ten cents; not ex- 

 ceeding $30, fifteen cents ; not exceeding $40, 

 twenty cents ; not exceeding $50, twenty -five 

 cents. When the postmaster has the maxi- 

 mum salary of $4,000, he is not allowed to re- 

 tain any portion of the fee. "When his salary 

 is under that amount, he is allowed one-third 

 of the fees received, and one-fourth of one per 

 cent, upon the gross amount of orders paid. 

 These fees, during the past fiscal year, have 

 yielded a profit of over fifty thousand dollars, 

 thus paying the expenses of the bureau. 



Such has been the success of the money-order 

 office that it has been determined to extend it 

 to foreign countries; Switzerland has been 

 selected for the trial experiment, and the 



postal treaty with that country embraces the 

 requisite provisions. The chief difficulty an- 

 ticipated arises from the premium on gold, but 

 it is confidently expected that the plan will 

 work well, and that the system will soon bo 

 extended to all parts of Europe. 



The following table shows the growth of 

 the bureau : 



Postal Cars. The postal car service, by 

 which is meant the sorting of mail matter 

 while in transit, commenced on the Iowa 

 division of the Chicago and Northwestern 

 Kailroad on the 28th of August, 1864. The 

 next service was inaugurated for the very 

 heavy mails between New York and Washing- 

 ton, and this was immediately followed by 

 its introduction on the Chicago and Eock 

 Island, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, 

 the Pennsylvania Central, and other promi- 

 nent roads. It may now be considered as a 

 permanent fixture on all important railroads. 

 Under the former system, certain offices, the 

 principal postal centres of the country, were 

 designated as Distribution Offices. On the 

 arrival of the mails at these offices, the matter 

 was re-sorted for the distribution office next 

 beyond ; the delay for this purpose often keep- 

 ing the mail over one train. Letters travelling 

 a long distance were, therefore, always be- 

 hind the traveller and the express; and the 

 longer the distance, the greater the delay. By 

 the new plan, mail matter is sorted in the cars 

 while in transit. Letters for way stations are 

 so bagged as to be thrown off at proper places, 

 and those for terminal offices are classified ac- 

 cording to the general direction of the route. 

 The mail is now ready for transhipment from 

 depot to depot, if necessary, without visiting 

 the post-office. By the catching service, the 

 mail bag is taken into and thrown from the 

 cars while in motion. An iron arm, projecting 

 from the car, seizes the mail-bag, at the station, 

 and gives it to the postal clerks. And thus the 

 local mails between contiguous offices are re- 

 ceived, sorted, and delivered, on the same day, 

 and without checking the speed of the train. 



During the fiscal year 1868, about five hun- 

 dred and forty millions of letters, besides a 

 large amount of free matter, passed through 

 the mails; of these, fourteen millions came 

 from foreign countries. During the same peri- 

 od, the department issued 383,470,500 postage 

 stamps, of the value of $11,751,014 ; 70,022,- 

 050 stamped envelopes, of the value of $2,044,- 

 738; and 3,372,600 newspaper wrappers, val- 

 ued at $67,374 ; total value, $13,863,124. 



Registered Letters. By the payment of an 

 extra fee, mail matter may be registered to 

 most parts of the civilized world. The regis- 



